Chapter 103: The Secret of the Curse

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"The Soul of the Sea is rubbish! Mine is top-notch!" Lin Jia was quite displeased when Yuehua called his Sea Soul trash.

"Uh~ You guys don’t know?" Yuehua said in surprise. "I saw some game experts on a forum say that in ‘Legend,’ if a weapon gains a curse after killing someone, its attack power drops! Your Sea Soul has a curse level of +6, which means it’s almost powerless in attack!"

Lin Jia and the others were stunned. No wonder they had felt their attack power was much weaker than before. It turns out there was this explanation.

"Where did you see that?" Fourth Brother asked.

Yuehua typed out the forum address and shared it with them. Lin Jia recognized it as the forum he had previously visited for quest guides. He quickly switched out, opened Internet Explorer, and went to the game forum.

After searching through the posts, Lin Jia indeed found the expert, "Soul Peak," who had posted the "Legend Attribute Theory," which explained the curse and luck attributes of weapons.

Reading the post, Lin Jia finally understood that the "Blessing Oil" he had found wasn’t some kind of "attribute poison," but rather a rare treasure with an extremely low drop rate, used to increase a weapon’s luck attribute points. For cursed weapons, each bottle used would reduce the curse attribute by one point; for weapons without curses, it would increase the luck attribute by one point.

The curse attribute, apart from the players’ suspicion that it increases the chance of dropping the opponent’s equipment after a PK kill, also had a hidden trait of "activating the minimum attack limit." For example, Fourth Brother’s 0-16 Slaying Saber, if cursed +10, would have this hidden effect maximized, meaning every attack would hit the minimum damage of 0–0.

On the other hand, the luck attribute, as theorized by expert Soul Peak, increases the drop rate of equipment and gold when fighting monsters. If luck is high enough, the drop rate during leveling improves significantly, and the chance of getting rare and high-level gear rises greatly. Its hidden trait is "activating the maximum attack limit," meaning if Fourth Brother’s luck attribute were high enough, his 0-16 Slaying Saber could deal attacks consistently at 16-16!

Such two extremes of opposite attributes! Yet both had their own unique characteristics and advantages, making it hard for players to choose. Although the post was speculative with incomplete data, Lin Jia found it quite convincing after comparing it with his personal experience.

Browsing casually through other posts, Lin Jia noticed the quest guide he had seen before seemed to have been updated. But since everyone in the game was waiting, he closed IE for now to check later.

After logging into the game, Yuehua saw Lin Jia’s little mage become active and knew Lin Jia had switched in. She said, "I wasn’t wrong, right?" Then she traded Lin Jia a crescent moon blade with 1-4 magic damage.

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Lin Jia wanted to test the post’s truth, so he took his cursed +6, 1-5 Sea Soul weapon, and had Fourth Brother strip off all his equipment to test the power of Lightning Spell. The reason for removing all gear was because certain equipment attributes could affect how the spell’s damage was calculated. Lin Jia wanted to test the Sea Soul’s true power, not the influence of Fourth Brother’s gear. So Fourth Brother opened his status window, showing his HP numerically.

First strike: Fourth Brother loudly reported the damage taken: "27!" Then the leader immediately restored his HP full, and Lin Jia continued.

After five consecutive attacks, the HP damage was: "27, 0, 19, 0, 7." The highest damage was 27 points, and twice there was zero damage!

Lin Jia stared in disbelief at his high-magic gear. Even if he used his Sea Soul to strike, the damage shouldn’t be so low. He switched to the 1-4 crescent moon blade Yuehua gave him and attacked Fourth Brother five times again, with damages: "41, 35, 36, 29, 57!"

"Damn!" Lin Jia was stunned staring at the numbers Fourth Brother reported in the chat. The difference was enormous! So his once highly valuable Sea Soul was now worthless compared to even a low-level blade?

The leader suggested, "Doesn’t that ‘Blessing Oil’ wash away curse attributes? We can farm some bottles in the Snake Valley and get rid of the curse."

Fourth Brother snapped, "It’s not that easy! Didn’t you hear what Second Brother said? That post said the drop rate for Blessing Oil is extremely low. You might not get a single bottle even after a whole day of farming."

"Then what do we do?" The leader grumbled, feeling disheartened.

Suddenly, Lin Jia remembered Gu Feng Yizhen, who often traveled between Biqi and Menzhong doing business. He immediately private messaged Gu Feng Yizhen, asking him to keep an eye out for Blessing Oil being sold by newcomers in Snake Valley.

From then on, novices in Snake Valley all knew that a mage named Gu Feng Yizhen often ran around shouting in yellow text, buying Blessing Oil at a high price of 50,000 gold per bottle. So many newbies who found the potion, clueless about its use, would seek him out to exchange for gold needed for leveling.

"Actually, you don’t have to wash off the curse attribute on that Sea Soul, do you? It’s so hard to get it up to +6; it would be a pity to wash it away," Yuehua said. "Just keep it and use it when you meet PK battles!"

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"Oh, right!" Lin Jia was reminded by Yuehua and realized although the crescent moon blade she gave only had 1-4 magic damage, his overall magic power hadn't decreased because the high-defense, high-magic robe he just picked up gave him +1 magic point compared to normal. His total magic power was still 6-26, and his defense had increased by 2 points.

To thank Yuehua for the exquisite crescent moon blade, Lin Jia gifted her a small but fine demon-slaying weapon with +1 attack as a token of gratitude. A 1-4 magic crescent moon blade could sell for around 600,000 gold on the market.

Yuehua initially didn’t want to accept it, saying she had no mage friends to play with and selling it would waste time. Besides, she didn’t know business well and the prices, so it was better to just give it to Lin Jia as a favor.

Thinking this guy was quite generous, the leader decided Lin Jia should give the 23-level Taoist a pair of morality rings he could wear, saying, "If others respect me a foot, I’ll respect them a yard!" Since Yuehua voluntarily gave Lin Jia such a valuable crescent moon blade, it showed she didn’t care much about profit and was worth befriending.

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[Notice: Strange! Why can’t I see the latest update??? Posting another chapter! There will be another update around midnight! If you want more, feel free to check out my old novels "The Origin of the Gods: Tang Dynasty" and "The Origin of the Gods: Modern Era." I think they’re quite interesting... Here are the links:

"The Origin of the Gods: Tang Dynasty":

"The Origin of the Gods: Modern Era":]